In recent years, mobile wireless communications have become increasingly popular. Presently, mobile devices such as laptops, personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), smartphones, cell phones, tablet PCs and other portable computers are rapidly gaining popularity. Mobile devices are available with interfaces enabling communications via mobile networks or local area network (LAN) wireless access points (hereinafter “wireless hotspot networks” or “hotspots”). Currently, mobile networks are operational that conform with the fourth generation (4G) standards, such as the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. These mobile networks provide voice communication, messaging, email and internet access (for example) by using radio frequency communication. Communications via hotpots may occur using a communications standard such as IEEE 802.11 (“WiFi”) network type wireless access points.
In contrast to current 4G LTE networks providing communications services via packet-based infrastructure, legacy mobile wireless communications networks provide voice communications services via circuit-switched voice capability. Such legacy networks have well established techniques for responding to a network initiated coarse location request from a commercial application server for a mobile device capable of utilizing the legacy network (e.g., 3G and/or 3G/4G mobile device). Emerging mobile devices, however, may only be capable of utilizing the current 4G LTE networks and lack the capability to utilize any legacy network. Current 4G LTE networks may not have well established techniques for processing a location request from a commercial application server for a mobile device only capable of utilizing a current 4G LTE network. For example, a carrier may operate both a legacy network and a 4G LTE network. The carrier in this example may have deployed the necessary infrastructure to provide location services related to the legacy network, but may not have deployed the necessary infrastructure to provide similar location services for the 4G LTE network.
Thus, a need exists for techniques for processing a location request from a commercial application server for a mobile device only capable of utilizing a current 4G LTE network.